The Australasian College of Paramedicine
The Australasian College of Paramedicine
Kerbside Conversations: Prue Snedden
Welcome to Kerbside Conversations – the College’s podcast capturing authentic voices and stories from across the world of paramedicine.
In this episode, Laura interviews Prue Snedden, a critical care flight paramedic from Queensland. Prue shares her journey in paramedicine, highlighting the challenges and failures she’s faced along the way. She discusses the importance of failure and resilience and learning from setbacks. Prue emphasizes the value of diversifying skills and experiences, which has enriched her career and personal growth. The conversation also touches on the significance of time management and the balance between work and personal life.
Laura Hirello: Okay, so to get us started, the first thing I'll have you do is introduce yourself so if you could tell me your name, where you're from, and what your current primary role is.
Prue Snedden: So I'm Prudence Snedden and I'm from Brisbane, Queensland, and my current role is on the rescue helicopter here in Brisbane as a critical care flight paramedic.
Laura Hirello: Excellent. OK. And so I heard you talk earlier at the Women in Paramedicine breakfast. And you talked a lot about your journey and all the things you've done in your career and all of those things. And what stood out most for me and what I most admire is that you talked about some failure in terms of when you applied for something and it didn't work out. And you had to do it again. And you had to do it again. And I think that often at events like these where we see these people who have these really cool roles and are doing all of these great things, we see all the things after their name and all their titles and what we don't realize is sort of all the missteps that they've had along the way and all the things that they've sort of tried out and failed or had to take multiple attempts at. So I was wondering if you could speak at all to sort of what it felt like to go for something you really wanted, fail, have to do it again, and then sort of eventually get there.
Prue Snedden: So it's an interesting conversation because I think I'm so glad I failed. At the time I didn't feel that. It felt absolutely like my world was coming down around me. I definitely dipped into depression and lost a lot of self-worth. So it was not just kind of being here, failing. was failing, dipping down, and then having to rise up to attempt again and then dipping down and rising up to fail again.
Laura Hirello: and then.
Prue Snedden: But now, from a paramedic point of view, when I am faced with people who are trying to get on the critical care program and they're not succeeding the first time or the second time, I can share that experience and I truly know what they're feeling. And I also think it built a lot of resilience in me. And therefore, when things don't go right on a job transitioning into other parts of my career or even parts of my family life, when I have setbacks or things don't go perfectly, I kind of find that I've built resilience from that failure. they're the kind of things, probably the two biggest things that I've learnt from is I can really feel the emotions of other people understand the setbacks they have. And the second is that the resilience that has given me has served me later on in life. So I kind of, though they were terrible, it was terrible at the time.
Laura Hirello: Catastrophic, no doubt.
Prue Snedden: But I think the one thing I think about is I was on a teetering line that we have to be really careful because I think I was lucky that it all did work out, but sometimes it won't. And you have to have an awareness of that. And I think I've changed that. Sometimes I used to be going for roles or positions and it would be for me, I lost that role, but it was never my role. Now it's more I'm going to try and win that. And if it goes well, it goes well, and if it doesn't, it doesn't.
Laura Hirello: Yeah, I still have other things that are going well. And I think it's such a common experience, particularly for new paramedics and young paramedics, is that this is the first thing that they've ever really immersed themselves in. And I think that's probably true for lots of professions, particularly medical ones. And if this is their sole identity and the only thing they really have to identify themselves with, then failure can be catastrophic. But the act of failing forces you to diversify. your identity and think about what else you stand for and who else you are and that sort of thing.
Prue Snedden: The failures definitely. So when I went through the CCP program and failed or didn't win the position of getting on the program, it sent me first, the first few weeks after was devastation and quite significant depression being like, I'm not good at this. I'm not even sure I want to be a paramedic anymore. And then I kept going to work and I was like, no, this is really what I want to do. And then I was like, okay, well, I need to keep myself busy and I need to diversify and I need to have a backup plan. So a few times I did different things. So the first failure I kind of leaned more into road crash rescue and became on a road crash rescue team. And that kind of honed my skills into more of a rescue, more trauma focus. And then the second time I went rural remote and that gave me rural remote skills and single officer practice and all those things now, 20 years on, they're like the things I love. I love road car rescue, I love trauma, I love rural remote care, I love looking after rural communities. So it's funny those things that though they were, they looked like setbacks at the time, they diversified me and meant that later in life I have purpose in other areas.
Laura Hirello: Absolutely, and they almost drove you into having these more diverse experiences that you otherwise wouldn't have had. And I think there's so much value in seeing other areas and doing other things and not necessarily being on this straight shot trajectory from ground to critical care to flight or whatever else we hold up is being really impressive.
Prue Snedden: And the thing nowadays is I think I came through at a pretty great time. We didn't have the degree had just been created when I first came through. So there was actually quite a significant lack of paramedics. Versus now, there is a large amount of unis having a large amount of graduates. So the competition for even just a graduate position is quite competitive. Yes. And I regularly see people being like they didn't interview me or I didn't get through the process. it's not personal. It's actually... largely HR that are processing this, but it can feel like a personal hit. So I think that would be the other thing is now I sometimes go, it's circumstances or variables out of my control that might mean that I've failed. And you need to make sure and own the failures that are personally yours, but also have awareness that those that aren't your problem. So like if they do a CCP intake and they reduce the numbers to six versus 15. that is, and you're number seven, that's really, that's out of your control. can't, you you tried your best and that's just circumstances.
Laura Hirello: And what I think we don't talk about enough and particularly among paramedics who are often very competitive and very high achieving and sort of have these really lofty goals is the role of luck in a lot of these processes, right? So like yeah, they only had six spots and you were number seven and why were you number seven? Because you know, the person who happened to be looking at your resume didn't realize one of your credentials or didn't fully read it. Like there's just this element of luck that I don't think we give enough credit to because you can do everything right and have it not work out and you can sort of not do everything right and have it work out and it can sometimes be uncomfortable to think about that but it's also incredibly freeing in some ways.
Prue Snedden: Yeah, I think the biggest thing recently is I always said yes to everything. And I think in your younger part of your career, I think that's really a good idea to say yes to a lot of things, even things that you think, I'm not sure I want to do that. as you then get more along in your career, I definitely now am quite comfortable saying no to things that I don't align with. And also knowing your worth. now I'm, I know. I work hard, I'm a good employee, and if someone gets me into a role, I'm gonna work for them and gonna do a really good job. And I sit and think about that when either I go for positions or positions are suggested to me. think, does this suit where I fit, like in my life and what I need.
Laura Hirello: Where I am. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I think we all hit a point at some stage in our career where we realize that our most valuable asset is our time. And particularly for people like yourself, who I get the impression that any role you get, you throw yourself into, and you are in it 100%. And so then, you have the ability to choose where you put that energy and where you put your time into. And I think that's great.
Prue Snedden: I'm very passionate and I absolutely love it. And it hasn't died off yet, 20 years on. And I get so excited about offering pre-hospital care. And mostly I probably get the most satisfaction when I see junior paramedics and you back them up or you work alongside them. that energy and spirit can rub off onto them and they're like, yeah, this is great. Because sometimes some of the students work with you know, negative people or people who aren't passionate anymore. And that's okay. Those people are also okay. They've just got other priorities and things going on in their lives. I think the other concern that you talk about time is I think a real interesting habit in our profession is in other jobs, you get a position and you work Monday to Friday or you work 40 hours. That is what you do. And that's your job. And most jobs can't just give over time. I think one of the thing that one of things I get really concerned about paramedics is we sell time. So we are, okay, I've done my shift for this week, but then there's this overtime and it's paid at double time. And that means I can go on that really nice holiday or I can get that nice car. And I think it's something I always think about now that I never did back then. I worked so much overtime and I'm really glad I did because it meant I could save up a house deposit and that is important for safety and security. But now I think about what I'm doing in regards over time or anything and I'm like, am I selling time? Because it's really precious. Especially at my age, I'm like, And we go to these horrific things where people are unexpectedly, their time is cut short. So I'm like, I think it's something that we should have a conversation about is selling time. Sometimes it's worth it, but sometimes it's not.
Laura Hirello: Yeah, and like the cost-benefit ratio of taking those extra shifts, of working that over time definitely changes as our sort of goals change and our safety levels change and that sort of thing. I think it's good to be really mindful of that as we go through. Yeah. Okay, so my final question. When you're on your night shifts, what is your guilty pleasure to help get you through those wee morning hours?
Prue Snedden: Lots of chocolate and lots of coffee.
Laura Hirello: Any particular, like is it like a specific chocolate?
Prue Snedden: You're just any high sugar. Yeah. And let me think what else. And probably it is a I don't know if it's a guilty pleasure. if I've been at base for a bit, I go in and I wash my face. Yes. I know that sounds like a and I brush my teeth. Because I feel like if I've had a little bit of downtime, which doesn't really happen anymore. Yeah. But like halfway through the shift, I'll just go wash my face at like that horrible hour between like one in the morning and four, I really struggle in that time. I just, and it makes me feel fresh and brushing my teeth makes me feel great and I feel like I can take on the world again.
Laura Hirello: Yes, it's sort of like being on a really long flight. Yes. You brush your teeth and you're like, so much better. Well, that's excellent. Thank you so much for chatting with me. And I hope you enjoy your time with the conference.
Prue Snedden: Thank you very much.